


Eddie Diaz and the Cat-astrophe at the 118

by SquaresAreNotCircles



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Cats, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, Jealous Eddie Diaz, Kinda, M/M, Pining, Team as Family, eddie has some issues but it all works out in the end, many boatloads of it, tiny sprinkle of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:55:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23055862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaresAreNotCircles/pseuds/SquaresAreNotCircles
Summary: It’s Chimney who rescues her from the tree, but it’s Bobby’s arms that she curls up in on the drive over to the vet to get her checked out. Right from the start, it’s as if she knows who she needs to cozy up with to secure her spot at the station.“Come on, that’s crazy,” Buck says, but he does so while laughing not at Eddie, but at the grey tabby cat trying to get her claws on the fake mouse on a string that Buck bought with his own money, so Eddie doesn’t put too much stock in his opinion.Or: The firefam adopts a mascot and Eddie has a minor crisis about it.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 79
Kudos: 469





	Eddie Diaz and the Cat-astrophe at the 118

**Author's Note:**

> This was _supposed_ to be a quick little 1k thing about the stationhouse getting a cat, but it went as those things always go, so it has now quintupled in wordcount. [throws confetti] Have my first 911 fic, internet! ✨

It’s Chimney who rescues her from the tree, but it’s Bobby’s arms that she curls up in on the drive over to the vet to get her checked out. Right from the start, it’s as if she knows who she needs to cozy up with to secure her spot at the station.

“Come on, that’s crazy,” Buck says, but he does so while laughing not at Eddie, but at the grey tabby cat trying to get her claws on the fake mouse on a string that Buck bought with his own money, so Eddie doesn’t put too much stock in his opinion.

*

It’s not that Eddie doesn’t like cats. It’s just that he doesn’t like the potential disruption that keeping an animal at the station could bring, which is not emotional or irrational or prejudiced at all, but a completely justified thing to be worried about. LA citizens rely on them; that’s not something to be taken lightly. 

That heroic excuse only holds until about a week in, when the actual effect of the cat turns out to be that it makes everyone coo all the damn time and brings a lot of Zen to even the most troubled of firefighters (excluding Eddie), but it was nice while it lasted. Eddie’s dislike of the cat is cemented (and, at least to Eddie’s mind, proven to be mutual) when one afternoon he fills a glass of water in the stationhouse kitchen, leaves it for two seconds to grab an apple from the fruit bowl, and returns to find a furry four-legged creature on the kitchen counter, three inches from his glass, holding it hostage with a contemplative expression on her little kitty face.

Eddie is at least a couple of feet too far away to win in a quick draw contest, so he freezes. He puts the apple down behind him without looking away from the cat and uses his newly free hand to point at her sternly. “Don’t,” he says, a clear warning. On Christopher, who is well-behaved and kind, this would work wonders.

Not so when it comes to the cat. She looks right at him, takes a distinct moment for deliberation on her own impending evil, and then gives the glass a decisive hit with one swipe of a paw, lightning quick. When it smashes into watery pieces on the floor, she’s already sitting on the edge of the counter where the glass was a moment ago, tail dangling down and licking her own glass-breaking paw like butter wouldn’t melt.

“I knew you couldn’t be trusted,” Eddie tells her, enraged. “You want a war? Because I’ll give you a war. I’ll show you who’s-”

“You are aware that shouting threats at a cat makes you sound kind of crazy, right?” It’s Buck who asks the question, but when Eddie drops his angry pointed finger and turns around, he is greeted by his whole team fanned out behind him. Bobby, Hen, Chimney, Buck – they’re all accounted for.

Which is slightly awkward. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” Chim says. His face is passive, but his arms are crossed judgmentally. “What’s your problem, man? What do you have against the natural behavior of a cat?”

Eddie grabs his rising embarrassment by the throat and pushes it into a box, to be locked away in the back of his mind forever, in a whole warehouse of other emotions that were inconvenient at the time. He keeps his shoulders straight and head raised high. “I’m still not convinced this whole thing is a good idea. What if a new recruit is allergic to cats?”

All eyes turn to Bobby once the question fully sinks in, which gives Eddie the satisfaction of finally having found a reason for his discontent that they can’t just brush off. Bobby stares back at all of them for a moment before he gives the smallest of shrugs. “There’s plenty of other firehouses in LA,” he says, so deadpan that Eddie genuinely isn’t sure if he’s serious or not.

Buck turns to Eddie, suddenly frowning, and at least _his_ face is always gratifyingly easy to read. He’s concerned, and not a little bit. “Wait, you don’t have a cat allergy, do you?”

If Eddie were a slightly more devious man, he would make good use of this opportunity to lie and get Buck on his side in a bid to get rid of the cat once and for all. As things are, Eddie’s deviousness doesn’t stand a chance at weighing up to the fondness he feels over Buck’s worry, and there’s no way he can feel that soft and lie that hard right in Buck’s face at the same time. Damn Evan Buckley and all of his heartwarming sincerity, anyway. “No,” Eddie admits. “I’m not.” Buck’s frown doesn’t smooth out and it looks like he’s about to open his mouth again, so Eddie adds, predicting what the next question will be, “Christopher’s not, either. He loves all animals and they love him.”

His instinctive guess was right, because Buck finally relaxes. “Cool. We should have him come over here again some time, let him meet our newest member.”

No. The correct answer to that is a firm no, because a stationhouse is no place for little kids if there are other options, and maybe also a tiny little bit because he knows in advance that Christopher will end up falling in love with the cat and ganging up on him with the rest of the team. “Yeah,” Eddie says instead, which is not a no, because Buck looks _hopeful_ at his own proposal to bring in Eddie’s kid and that makes the back of Eddie’s neck feel warm and throws everything off. Again: damn Evan Buckley for existing. “Maybe.” 

Buck bounces in place in excitement. Eddie really, really hates that he doesn’t regret not putting his foot down, not even when he spots Hen and Chim sharing a certain kind of look. He only sees them do it out of the corner of his eye anyway, because he’s still accidentally grinning back at Buck, so it barely counts. 

“Someone better clean up that broken glass before Steve steps in it,” Bobby points out.

*

“Steve?” Athena asks, the first time she’s having dinner at the station after the adoption paperwork for the cat has officially come through and all the correct forms have been filed with the city in triplicate, with a bow on top. It’s decided and there is no going back now. The 118 is a station full of proud cat moms and dads and Eddie from now on. “How on earth did you arrive at the idea that Steve would be a good name for a female cat?”

“Chimney named her,” Bobby says, neatly deflecting responsibility. He leaves out that he was the one who chose to allow Chimney to name the cat in the first place.

“For the original Captain America,” Chimney explains, like he expects everyone to clue in and go “yeah, that makes total sense” at those three words. Athena keeps staring at him with an eyebrow raised in clear judgment, so Chim casts a look around for support and adds, “Steve Rogers? From the popular Marvel comics?”

“I love those movies,” Buck says, grinning. Eddie has seen a few as well – all of them together with Christopher, and most with Buck, too – but he’s not about to let Chim know that when he’s so desperately looking for a spark of recognition, because winding Chim up is a lot more fun. Eddie catches Hen’s eyes and they tell him she’s thinking the exact same thing, only presumably with Denny substituted for Christopher and Karen for Buck.

Eddie makes a point of not thinking about the deeper meaning of the parallels he’s drawing here. Instead, he focuses on passing Buck the salad bowl for a second time before Buck even asks for it. It’s important he gets his greens, so he stays healthy, so Christopher won’t ever have to worry about him. 

It’s another one of those logical moves Eddie makes on a daily basis that are not influenced by any emotions he may feel surrounding any certain person at all. Nope.

*

Steve is small and grey and an absolute terror. She makes Eddie jump by sneaking up on him and meowing loudly right behind his back, she leaves hair everywhere, she scratches the dining table legs before Bobby can tell her not to, she leaves her cat toys in places where people will eventually break their necks over them and she gets fed the tuna Eddie was meaning to put on a sandwich.

Perhaps worst of all: when given the choice of the entire team, she keeps cuddling up to Buck every single time. Eddie isn’t sure why this enrages him so much, but it does. It’s something about equal treatment and how she’s clearly playing favorites, probably, he thinks. He’s too full of blind rage to think straight.

It’s one of those times when the team is hanging out in the stationhouse living room, kind-of-but-not-really watching an episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos, that Hen suddenly speaks up about it. Eddie’s been doing his best not to openly glare in the direction of Steve, comfortably nestled in Buck’s lap while Buck is sprawled next to Chim on one of the couches, but clearly he hasn’t been as successful as he hoped, if the fact that Hen takes one look at him and starts laughing is any indication. “Man, you remind me of the way Buck acted when you first joined the 118. Totally jealous.”

“I wasn’t jealous,” Buck says, but the severity of his protest is undercut by his lazy slouch, his grin and the way he’s petting a purring cat.

“Hen’s right,” Chim says. With a crunch, he bites into one of the carrots Bobby put out as healthy snack so they won’t be tempted to fill up on junk while Bobby is cooking. “I foresee an epic Eddie-Steve bromance somewhere in the future.”

“Eddieve?” Hen asks, clearly testing the sound of it as she goes along. “No, I changed my mind: Steddie. That’s much better.”

“Ooh, I like that one,” Buck says. “Do us next.” For a moment Eddie can’t quite believe what he’s hearing, but then Buck happily clarifies, “Me and Steve.”

Eddie tunes out after that, because it’s either that, or storm out in a fit of fury that might look a little too much like one of Christopher’s temper tantrums to be something he wants to explain to the group. If they want Eddie to warm up to Steve the way Buck did to Eddie, that means Eddie and Steve are going to have to team up to extract live ammunition from someone’s leg, and he just doesn’t see Steve stepping up to the plate in that kind of situation. It’s not like the bomb squad would have gear that could fit her, just for a start.

This is totally the thing he quietly seethes about. Definitely absolutely for sure.

*

Okay, so maybe it isn’t, and maybe he knows that. Maybe he’s trying not to think about it, at night, staring at his bedroom ceiling in the dark and wondering how his life has come to a point where he’s debilitatingly jealous of a cat called Steve for possibly being liked better by his best friend but he also can’t express any of it because just thinking about uttering feelingsy words makes his throat close up with a panicked fear that he might lose the one person he’s come to rely on the most by moving too fast, pushing them away, and getting them killed. Again. He tells himself he’s not scared of breaking his own heart, but he can’t risk Christopher’s. 

He’s not sure he believes himself when it comes to that first part.

*

They get a call about a small kitchen fire. It’s still fairly contained when they arrive at the scene and they manage to put it out with minimal water damage to the property, but when they exit the house, there’s an unexpected second emergency as the huddling family’s boxer mix pulls free from its collar and tries to take off. The cries of “no, Bumper!” and “come back!” are not enough to stop Bumper in his tracks.

Buck, thinking quick, sprints to grab a bright blue chew toy from the lawn and steps into the dog’s path, and Buck being Buck, he successfully manages to convince the dog that spending time with him would be way more fun than making a grand escape. Buck ends up rolling around on the lawn with the dog until Bobby decides there’s nothing more they can do at the scene. Somewhat teary goodbyes are said, on both Buck’s and the dog’s side, and the team piles into the truck again to let themselves be ferried back to the station. 

They’re just pulling away from the curb when Buck says, dismayed, “Oh, Steve is so not going to like that.” He’s looking down at his own uniform, in particular the front of his jacket and his legs, which are both completely covered in short, coarse dog hair. The white and light brown is a stark contrast to the black of the gear, making the evidence of Buck’s tryst absolutely unmistakable. 

“You cheated on her,” Eddie says. He can’t help it if there’s maybe some dark glee in his voice.

Chim gives a low whistle. “Total Buck 1.0 move, man. I thought you’d evolved past that.”

“Do you think she’ll forgive me if I buy her flowers and a nice dinner?” Buck asks, still busy trying to brush the dog hair from his pants. It’s kind of hopeless. Eddie hates to watch him struggle, so he tries to help out, but he only realizes exactly what he’s doing by the time he’s already vigorously rubbing Buck’s inner thigh and Buck glances up at him kind of wide-eyed.

“Maybe you can regift the dinner Eddie should’ve bought you before he did that,” Hen says.

Eddie pulls his hand back to his own lap. He’s very glad for the headsets they have to wear on the road, because they hide a lot about your facial expression without looking like you’re hiding at all. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine!” Buck hastens to reassure him, a hand held aloft like he’s trying to calm down a skittish horse. “Thanks. I think that did the trick.”

Eddie nods at Buck a little stiffly. He could swear he hears someone mutter “I bet” under their breath, but he’s determinedly staring out the window instead of at Hen and Chimney, so he can safely pretend he didn’t catch that.

*

Here’s part of Eddie’s problem: Buck is a very pretty guy. That’s not Eddie’s bias speaking. It’s just fact.

It’s the kind of fact that makes his stomach fill with all kinds of worrying tingles, sometimes. The kind of fact that causes him to stop and stare, something he definitely didn’t consciously choose to do, when he’s on his way into the kitchen for dinner and spots Buck, asleep on the couch and completely relaxed. Buck has one leg up and one on the floor, and a hand on his own chest near the cat that’s curled up there, like he fell asleep petting her. Externally, Eddie is frozen, and internally, his brain is frantically sending error messages.

This shouldn’t be cute. Why is this cute? 

“Word of unsolicited advice?” Hen offers. Eddie startles and turns to look at her standing next to him with some confusion, because he didn’t notice anybody coming up. 

“Sure,” he says vaguely. His brain is still occupied with the idea of Buck’s hands stroking Steve’s fur rhythmically as they fall asleep and he’s not thinking clearly enough to register Hen’s quirked brow as alarming.

“Maybe you should just tell him you want to curl up in his lap too, instead of glaring daggers at poor Stevie all the time. She so doesn’t deserve it.”

Hen is gone, moving on to join Bobby, Chim and the rest of the station at the table before Eddie gets his brain to send signals to his mouth to make it say words.

He’s not sure he would’ve known what words to say, anyway.

*

As if Buck hasn’t been putting Eddie’s strength of character to the test enough, the very next day he convinces Eddie to bring Christopher to the stationhouse that weekend during their shift. When Saturday rolls around, instead of dropping Christopher off at grandma’s, Pepa’s or a schoolfriend’s place, Eddie takes him to work. He’s cleared it with Bobby and has arranged for Pepa to come get Christopher an hour and a half into the shift, but he still feels a little hesitant about the whole thing.

He shouldn’t have. Buck is already waiting for them when they arrive and he takes care of everything. Christopher is instructed to sit on the couch, handed the mouse on the string that Steve loves and told to wait for the cat to come to him, which happens almost immediately. They get acquainted in a calm and friendly manner, while Buck keeps a close eye the entire time. Eddie hangs back and watches them all interact, and while he doesn’t suddenly go crazy over Steve, his icy opinion does thaw the smallest bit when she’s gentle and careful with Christopher, who never once stops smiling and looking like he’s having the time of his life. Eddie expects he’ll soon have to say no to a lot of requests for a feline member to be added to the Diaz household.

At a certain point, Buck, who is sitting on the couch with Christopher and Steve, looks up as if to check on Eddie, who’s been standing behind them. Buck leans in close to Christopher, keeping eye contact with Eddie while he faux-whispers, “Chris, help me convince your dad cats are totally awesome.”

“Cats are awesome, dad,” Christopher dutifully parrots, giving the conspiracy away by giggling his way through it. It could, to be fair, also have something to do with the way Steve paws at the mouse while Christopher keeps dangling it just where she can’t get at it.

Eddie reaches out to ruffle Chris’s hair, but he tries his very hardest to look shocked rather than completely enamored when he replies. It’s a struggle. “You’d turn my own son against me, Buckley?”

“I will if you insist on being so clearly wrong all the time, Diaz.”

That makes Christopher laugh harder, which makes Buck grin even bigger, which all combined makes Eddie’s heart thump in his chest painfully. 

*

Eddie is on his own in the station living room, on the couch, trying to read a book. It’s a book Bobby lent him. It’s probably good.

Eddie honestly has no clue, because he keeps getting distracted by Steve, who is sitting on the recliner a few feet away and staring at him without blinking.

“Stop that,” he whispers at her, with ferocity but also quietly, because he’s learned his lesson from the broken glass debacle. Steve on the other hand has learned nothing. Not a single thing, because she just keeps watching him from a distance, with no indication of why. He’s not proud of how uneasy it makes him.

When Buck comes up the stairs, he spots Eddie and immediately makes a beeline. It makes Eddie feel a little better, until Buck ends up leaning on the back of Steve’s recliner, a bit too literally in her corner.

“Hi,” Eddie says, and he can’t help it if his eyes go from Buck to Steve and he maybe sneers the tiniest bit. 

Buck looks at him, at Steve, and then back at him with a little head tilt. “Okay, I don’t get it. Why do you dislike cats so much, really?”

Eddie heaves a deep sigh to steel his nerves. He feels very stupid about it, but Buck deserves to know the truth. It’s time to come out with it. “When I was a kid, the neighbor’s cat took my favorite stuffed animal and none of the adults would believe me when I told them I hadn’t just lost it. I never got it back.”

Buck’s eyebrows twitch and he passes a hand over his mouth, but his eyes are way too expressive to hide that he’s smiling. “What kind of animal was it?”

“A rabbit,” Eddie admits, a little miserable. It’s a combination of the memory and having to admit out loud that he hasn’t had the strength to just get over himself, even if it’s to Buck, who’s not going to make fun of him, probably. He closes Bobby’s book and puts it aside, because he’s officially not going to get anywhere with it now.

“Okay.” Buck drops his hand and nods encouragingly. “Well, Steve is not your neighbor’s evil toy-stealing cat.”

“Yes, and intellectually, I know that.”

Buck nods again. It’s starting to remind Eddie of talking to a therapist in a way that’s not entirely comfortable, until Buck says, “You just need to bond, man. I’m always here for Christopher, right? Kinda like that.”

Eddie is so affronted he forgets to feel bad. “Are you comparing my son to a cat?”

Buck holds up a finger. “Step one: realize that’s not actually an insult.” Eddie is still close to openly gaping, but Buck doesn’t even see it, because he’s getting up and walking over to Steve, who’s been watching them attentively. Buck picks her up and she lets him. She’s like furry putty in his hands while he carries her over to Eddie. 

Eddie realizes what’s about to happen roughly two seconds before Steve does, but still neither of them is at all prepared when he suddenly has a lap full of cat that didn’t end up there voluntarily. “Santo cielo,” he hisses, while the cat does not hiss, but does see fit to extend her claws in such a way that he can feel them through his jeans. He keeps his hands carefully a few inches away from her body, not sure where to put them that wouldn’t enrage her further and potentially give her cause to claw him in other places, too. There’s one or two of those that she has perfect access to while she’s sitting in his lap and that he really, really still needs. “Buck,” he pleads, because that might be a more effective route to take than requesting help from the heavens.

Buck takes a perch on the armrest of the couch, just far enough away that Steve can’t just take two steps and transport herself to his lap. “You’re doing fine,” he says, soothingly. 

Eddie doesn’t feel soothed, but it seems Steve does, because she sits down right where she is. Eddie lowers his hovering hands until they’re resting near his thighs, careful not to touch Steve’s paws or disturb her tail.

“Yeah!” Buck, grinning like he wins awards for it, puts his feet up on the seat of the couch so he’s fully facing them and rests his elbows on his knees. “That’s cute. You look cute together.”

“It’s all Steve,” Eddie says, because if he’s been shamefully jealous and irrationally scared of a cat for the last few weeks, he can at least give it some credit for maybe objectively being a little pettable, if you like that kind of thing.

Buck’s grin stays, but it gets a weird edge. “No, it’s not.”

Eddie finds himself caught by whatever it is that’s playing under the surface on Buck’s face at that moment. Buck doesn’t do subtle most of the time, but this sounds oddly like flirting, in that way that pops up between them every once in a while. It’s a spark and Eddie will admit he’s curious to see what would happen if he held some kindling to it.

So of course that’s when the bell rings, Steve digs her claws in a little deeper to gain leverage to jump from his lap, and the moment is very effectively ruined.

*

Eddie decides that maybe sparks and kindling are not the right way to go about this, because Buck probably wouldn’t appreciate Eddie trying to gauge his feelings by setting a fire and getting kicked out of the LAFD. So he has to come up with something different, and all things considered, it’s not that hard. He’s known about this place for months, has been meaning to take Christopher some day for ages and been playing with the idea of inviting Buck along ever since Steve came into their lives. He makes the reservation with a simple phone call, but then comes the difficult part.

He waits, and then he waits a little more, and then he waits another day. It’s surprisingly hard to get Buck alone when Eddie is actively looking for it – at the station, Bobby and Hen and Chim are almost always within hearing distance, and when Buck comes over, Chris is always close. Those are both things Eddie appreciates most days, because he thinks of the team as family and every moment he spends with Christopher is a moment that reminds him why life is worth living, but the presence of other people doesn’t make working up the courage to ask delicate questions any easier.

In the end, he gets Buck alone not through any clever scheming on his part, but by pure accident. They get back from a medical call and Steve is waiting for them on the stairs, so Buck makes a short detour to say hello to her before he follows everyone into the turnout room. All Eddie needs to do is shed his gear a little slower than usual, and suddenly he has Buck all to himself, in one of the few parts of the station that is shielded from the rest, where he’ll be able to see people coming through the glass walls but they won’t hear him stumble over his words. 

He leans on his closed locker, ultra-casual, while Buck finishes getting his gear squared away correctly for easy access when the next call comes. “Do you know what a cat café is?”

Buck peers around his locker door, interest clearly piqued. “A café for cats?” he guesses, because of course he would.

“Close, but not quite.” Eddie isn’t sure how much of Buck’s cluelessness is for play in this particular case, but he’s not taking any chances. “It’s for humans, but there are cats lounging around while you’re having your coffee or tea.”

“That sounds awesome.” Buck closes his locker, and he’s grinning when he crosses his arms and leans one shoulder against it, copying Eddie’s pose.

“Yeah.” So far, so good. Now the hard part. He takes a deep breath, stands up straight and keeps swimming, like Dory, like Christopher, like Buck himself would do. “Do you wanna go? Like, say, Saturday, at three?” He really hopes Buck is free Saturday at three, because it was one of the few slots they had left on short notice. Apparently, a lot of people like cats. Who knew?

Instead of opening up his calendar, Buck stares at Eddie in total confusion. “Why do _you_ wanna go?”

Eddie stares back and hopes to God it’s meaningful enough to allow Buck to catch a clue.

Buck’s eyes run over Eddie’s face in circles. When the corners of Buck’s mouth suddenly start twitching stubbornly upwards, Eddie feels a weight lift from his chest. “Are you- Is this-”

“Go on,” Eddie encourages, because he really, really hopes Buck can give him those words he’s missing.

Buck, who is getting into a habit of saving Diaz lives, provides exactly what’s needed. He looks a little nervous about it, but excited, both of which bolster Eddie’s confidence. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

Be smooth. Be _smooth_ , Diaz, smooth like peanut butter. “That depends. Are you about to say yes?”

“Oh my God,” Buck blurts, which makes Eddie fear there might have been some crunch to his delivery. “Hen was right.”

“She usually is.” Eddie is simultaneously relieved and annoyed that it’s not about him. Not that everything needs to be, but he’s kind of going out on a limb here and he’s feeling a distinct lack of support.

“Yeah, but I mean, you actually _were_ jealous. I can’t believe it. You-”

Buck falls quiet very suddenly. He’s staring at something near Eddie’s feet. It makes Eddie look down on autopilot, but he would have done so anyway in the very next second because there is something bumping against his ankles in an unfamiliar way.

It’s Steve. She’s pushing her head against his shin and leaning her whole body into him as she circles him, like she does with Buck when she wants him to pick her up and pet her.

Eddie looks up at Buck, who may or may not be gaping at him openly. Eddie clears his throat. “Uh,” he says, looking down again. “Hi Steve.” Very, very slowly and carefully he bends his knees and crouches down, making sure he avoids any sudden movements that could startle her. He offers up his hand and she rubs her head into it, so he dares venture to her back. “You’re very soft,” he tells her, just in case she didn’t know yet. She makes a happy meowing sound and headbutts his knee.

A few steps away, Buck’s feet shuffle awkwardly. “Okay, now _I’m_ weirdly jealous, and that’s not even the part of you I want to rub up against.”

Eddie whips his head up and Buck is right there, watching him raptly with a look in his eyes that Eddie has become intimately familiar with from the other end over the last few weeks. All of a sudden, Eddie thinks he might be able to revisit his stance on firehouse cats. When they’re giving you their blessing to ask out your mutual best friend, they’re not so bad.

*

Their first date goes better than any first date has the right to go, and the second perhaps even more so, because Buck plans it and it involves exactly zero cats but a lot of painstakingly homecooked food and candles and Buck in a blue shirt that brings out his eyes. It’s when Eddie picks Buck up for their third date – a mutually agreed-upon hiking trip – that a potential spanner gets thrown in the works when Buck gets in Eddie’s truck and says, very seriously, “There’s something I should tell you, because I feel like I’ve given you the wrong impression, and it’s actually something that’s very important to me.”

“Okay,” Eddie says, slowly, trying not to freak out. He leaves the car quiet so he can give Buck his undivided attention. “What is it?”

Buck gives his most sincere puppy eyes. “I’m actually a dog person,” he says, and proceeds to lament that he didn’t have his phone ready to capture Eddie’s outraged face on the entire drive over to the hiking trail, where Eddie is a good boyfriend and refrains from the temptation to push him off a cliff.

**Author's Note:**

> Why did I make them call the cat Steve? Because Steve McGarrett from Hawaii Five-0 has a dog called Eddie and Steve Rogers from the MCU has a best friend called Bucky and I think I’m hilarious (and enjoy making my own writing more confusing for myself than it needs to be), clearly.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Comments will make me love you forever and if you want, come find me on Tumblr, where you can find me as [itwoodbeprefect](https://itwoodbeprefect.tumblr.com/). ❤


End file.
